Fic is the sequel to "San Francisco Snowstorm". It's a bit more grittier and not really on the mark as a PM story as I merged another storyline with this one...branching out into the medical/crime genre.

Jules is feeling bad
about her recent behavior towards Matt. For his part, Matt has been abraded
by Jules' rash behavior and he's rather wary of her motives. But professionalism
overcomes all and our favorite internist helps Jules put together a treatment
program for Braxton.

Jules spies Matt at the
front desk chatting with Norman. She hesitates, unsure of how to approach
him. He spies her out of the corner of his eye, but doesn't interrupt his
conversation wtih Norman.

Harriet walks by Jules,
pauses, looks to see what Jules is watching and understands what Jules
is hesitating about.

Harriet nudges Jules.

H: "He deserves an apology
and a thank you for that tough DI diagnosis."

J: "I know."

H: "So what are you waiting
for?"

J: "I, uh, treated him rather
badly. I don't know how to approach him."

H: "Approach him the same
way you deal with the parents of NICU babies."

J: "Thanks." Harriet continues
on her way and Jules walks boldly up to Matt. He affects not to notice
her until she speaks to him.

J: "Good morning, Matt."

M: (in an even voice;
Norman answers the phone) "Good morning."

J: "I wanted to apologize
for my behavior lately."

M: "I see."

J: "I know we need to talk
legal agreement but I can't deal with that now. Braxton and Tank and Duke
are still much on my mind."

M: (cooly) "That's
understandable. How are Tank and Duke doing?"

J: "No worse. No better."
(she hesitates a moment). "And I wanted to say thank you for helping
with Braxton's diagnosis."

M: (very professional)
"I've dug up my notes on the infant I diagnosed with DI back in med school.
You might be interested in looking at the treatment. There are some potential
developmental delays and learning disabilities Braxton might have."

J: "Like what?"

M: "Simon didn't crawl or
walk until he was 18 months. Speech was delayed, and Simon was eventually
diagnosed with memory problems and ADHD. He got overheated easily and developed hand tremors."

J: (a bit of anguish has
crept into her voice) "Braxton hasn't started crawling or talking and
he's fifteen months!" (she runs her hand through her hair).

M: (in a reassuring tone)
"Early hormone treatment helps."

Norman cuts in.

N: "Jules? Mrs Karlgaard
has finally phoned back. She's made an appointment for tomorrow at 2."

J: "Is she still on the line?"

N: "No. She's in Tahoe. Her
husband got into a ski accident. Broke his ankle."

J: "When she comes into tomorrow,
show her to my office, not an exam room. And reschedule the rest of my
patients after Mrs Karlgaard."

Norman: "Your next patient
cancelled and you've no patients until after lunch."

M: "Thanks." (he tips
his head to Jules) "See you later. Remember, we're all in this boat
together."

J: "See you." (Matt quickly
goes out the front doors of Presidio)

N: "So that's why Matt was
telling me about DI."

J: "He was?"

N: "Yeah. You know that Matt's
an internist."

J: "I know that."

N: "I meant that Matt likes
to solve problems, which makes him a great diagnostician."

J: "He's also a pack rat,
keeping those notes on Simon all these years."

N: "He's a great coordinator
and likes organization."

J: "Matt deals with adult
patients and DI's usually diagnosed in infants."

N: "Not from what Doctor
Slingerland was telling me. He said that DI can be a result of an underlying
illness, or a head injury, or meningitis, or even gestational."

J: "And he kept those notes
should he encounter another DI case, even in an adult?"

N: "DI was the first rare
disease he diagnosed. His instructor kept contradicting the diagnosis."

J: "So Matt won out and Simon
was diagnosed with DI. That explains his pride in keeping the notes all
these years."

N: "You got it."

An SFPD officer (Li Cho)
walks in the PM offices...he goes to Norman.

Li: "I'm here to see Doctor
Lanning."

N: "Ah! For the private abortionist
case?"

Li: "Yes."

Jules cuts in.

J: "I've rounds to do in
NICU if anyone's looking for me." She walks away while Norman
nods as he pages Doctor Lanning. He speaks to Li Cho.

N: "If you'll follow me,
I'll show you to her office."

Li: "Thank you."

The two men go off to
Harriet's office, where she's waiting to see the SFPD officer. Norman introduces
them and takes his leave. Li Cho comes in and sits down at Harriet's invitation.
He takes out a notebook and a pencil.

Li: "Your patient said she
received a private abortion from a man named Tylar down near Marina Green."

H: "That's right."

Li: "Did she give a last
name for Tylar?"

H: "No. And I don't think
he would have given one anyway with him being unlicensed."

Li: "Very true. Did you get
a description of Tylar?"

H: "That I didn't get. Didn't
Vivian tell you about him?"

Li: "Not before she was shot."

H: (shocked) "Shot?"

Li: "The shoot-out last night."

H: "I heard that on the radio
this morning."

Li: "They brought her here
to UMC. She was in surgery for six hours."

H: "Surgery is Nick Kokoris'
department."

Li looks at his notes.

Li: "Doctor Kokoris was the
surgeon who operated."

H: (breathing a sigh of
relief) "She's in great hands with Doctor Kokoris."

Li: "And a Doctor Matt Slingerland
from UMC treated her on the scene."

H: (surprised) "Matt
was on the scene?

Li: ""According to the officer
at the scene, yes he was."

H: "But I just saw him at
the front desk."

Li: "I was in the ICU earlier
trying to get a statement from Vivian, just in case she didn't make it."

H: "Isn't she going to survive?"

Li: "At this point, Doctor
Kokoris is barely able to hold her condition stable. The only information
that I was able to get from Vivian was that she went to a spray-painted
warehouse near Marina Green."

Li: "There are many warehouses
near Waterfront Street in Marina Green."

H: "That particular warehouse
is a favorite for the graffiti artists. I've used that warehouse as a reference
point many times when I give directions. I say, "go straight until you
see a spray-painted warehouse, then immediately turn right on Waterfront
Street."

Li: "A native secret to navigating
Frisco?"

H: (smiling) "Something
like that. I'll bet that warehouse is the one you're looking for."

Li: "I hope so. Because the
best I can figure out is that we're looking for someone from England named
Tylar."

H: "Why do you think Tylar's
from England?"

Li: "Tylar's a British name.
Did Vivian tell you anything else about Tylar?"

H: "Not much. Just that a
few of her friends use him when the need arises."

Li: "Thank you for your time.
If any of his other 'patients' come in, direct them to me."

Li hands Harriet his card.
Harriet puts the card on her desk, waits a moment, then follows Li Cho
out of her office. She goes across to the hospital ICU where Matt and Nick
are standing outside the ICU talking quietly. Harriet walks up.

H: "Li Cho from SFPD told
me you two have a patient of mine. Vivian Noombi. Is she going to make
it?"

Nick hesitates; Matt answers
for him.

M: "She was shot five times.
Three times in the chest, once in the lower abdomen and once in the face."

N: "Matt came across the
scene just after the shootout. If it wasn't for him, she would have died
before getting to surgery."

Matt attempts to deflect
Nick's compliment.

H: "But is she going to make
it?"

N: (takes a breath, then
in a solemn voice) "I went in twice to stop the bleeding. Removed most
of the liver and one lung. Half her intestines are gone as is her uterus
and one ovary. I repaired the aorta. Best I can say is the next 24 hours
are very critical."

H: "Damn."

M: "Where's her family?"

H: "She's emancipated. SFPD
didn't inform them?"

M: "Apparently not."

N: "Except for someone calling
herself "Sunshine" no one's come to see Vivian."

H: "Can I see her?"

Nick nods and Harriet
goes to wash her hands at the foot-operated sink just to the right of the
trio. She puts on gloves and a face mask before entering the ICU. Nick
and Matt watch her quietly then Nick says:

N: "Guess we should check
up on Vivian ourselves."

M: "Good idea." Nick and
Matt also wash their hands. Gloved and masked, they enter the ICU and go
to stand next to Harriet, who's looking down at Vivian.

Vivian's face is wrapped
in bandages and tubes are everywhere. Nick adjusts the IV drip.

H: "Jackie is going to have
some work to do."

N: "If Vivian survives."

H: "She's in a coma?"

N: "In and out."

M: (in a warning tone)
"She's crashing."

Machines start bleeping
insistently and nurses rush towards Vivian's bed. Harriet and Matt step
back to allow Nick and the nurses try to stablize Vivian. They watch solemnly
as one of the male nurses tries CPR but a thick stream of blood jets out
of Vivian's mouth on the first chest push, the blood covers the nurse,
the bed and the front of Nick's gown. Nick's mask and forehead are spattered
with blood. He is shocked.

H: (softly, to Matt)
"Flatline."

M: "Yeah."

Nick realizes the same
thing as blood starts to seep quickly through the sheet covering Vivian's
legs, dripping off the sides of the gurney. Blood is still pouring out
of Vivian's mouth as she flatlines. Nick and the nurses work frantically
to save Vivian, cutting open the chest stitches, but to no avail--she's
still flatline.

The ICU nurses are shocked,
and they look to Nick for guidance. He shakes his head.

N: "She's gone. Too much
blood loss." There is silence from the medical staff as the heart monitor
steadily bleeps its flatline. Blood is dripping quickly and thickly from
the gurney onto the floor in a steady stream.

Male Nurse: "Should we call?"
(Nick waits a long moment)

N: "Time of death..." (he
glances at the large clock on the wall) "9:16 am."

Matt is upset. Nick tries
to comfort him as the ICU nurses cover Vivian and begin to mop up the blood.
A nurse comes up to Nick with a sponge. She pats his forehead but Nick
waves her away.

N: "She would have died on
the street had it not been for you."

M: "I know. It's still hard
to see her die."

H: "It's always going to
be hard. The other day when I had to tell a woman I had to remove her uterus,
it was the most difficult job I had to do that day."

M: "Will I ever get used
to it?"

H: "No."

N: "We did our best." (to
Harriet) "I noticed the dissolving stitches in her cervix when I removed
her uterus. She was pregnant?"

H: "A 'private' abortionist.
She was still bleeding so I put some stitches in."

Nick nods.

N: "You might want to be
look at the pathology report. She also had a small tumor on the ovary that
I removed."

H: "Cancer?"

N: "Report hasn't come back
yet. If it is cancer, any sisters she has need to be aware."

H: "I'll let them know. You
did your best, Nick."

N: "Thanks." Harriet takes
a last look at Vivian before the sheet goes over her face. She goes out
of the ICU ahead of Vivian.

Matt is silently watching
the ICU nurses wheel Vivian's sheet covered body out of the ICU.

N: "The bullets were the
fragmenting kind. I took out as many as I could find. Vivian really didn't
have much of a chance."

M: "So she was already dead
the instant she was shot."

N: "That's about it."

M: "And bullet fragments
got into her bloodstream?"

N: "Most likely. The autopsy
report will tell us what happened. Let me get cleaned up and we'll catch
some coffee."

Matt nods and allows Nick
to lead him out of the ICU.

Later that day, Nick is
talking to the pathologist (Carmen Nogales; in her late 40s) in the Pathology
Lab.

N: "So, cancer and fragmenting
bullets."

C: "She would have survived
the cancer. It was just developing as Stage I." (Carmen goes to a tray
on a table and holds up a large bullet fragment). "This is what
killed her. Wormed its way into the arteries and ripped her aorta open
a few inches from where you repaired it. By the way, excellent work
you did on her."

Nick holds his gloved
hand out for the bullet fragment and Carmen drops it into his gloved hand.

N: "Didn't help much. This
evidence?" Carmen nods as Nick holds the bullet fragment up then drops
it back into the tray.

C: "A fragment sliced the
femoral artery and I found fragments in her remaining lung. She didn't
have a chance."

N: "That's what I told Matt."
Nick and Carmen look up when the doors to the Pathology Lab open and
Doctor Matt walks in as if on cue.

C: "I thought you'd be swinging
by here, Doctor Slingerland. I've got the pathology report. Heard you got
her into Kokoris' hands alive. Great job on the scene." She hands Matt
the report. He reads it solemnly.

M: "This explains her last
words."

Carmen raises her eyebrow.
Matt continues.

M: "She said..." (his
voice cracks slightly) "Vivian said to me, 'you won't have much work
to do. I'm dead already.' Then she lapsed into unconsciousness."

C: "Crap. I was hoping she
didn't know how bad it was. That she was unconscious after she was shot."

N: "She came around briefly
just after the second surgery. Just long enough to talk to SFPD."

M: (quietly) "Then
she crashed."

C: (sensing Matt's need
to see what killed Vivian) "Matt, I know it's rather morbid, but would
you like to view what killed Vivian? I haven't closed yet."

Matt hesitates then nods.
The three docs walk to a table where a sheet-covered body lies. Carmen
starts to pull back the sheet from the face, then changes her mind and
pulls the sheet up from the waist, exposing an open chest. Carmen indicates
with a gloved hand where Nick's stitches are plainly visible in the aorta
and the two inch cut located just a few inches above Nick's sutures.

C: "That's what killed her.
That and a slice into the femoral artery."

M: (is silent a moment
as he doesn't know what to say. Finally he comments blandly:) "That's
a long cut."

N: "Nothing anyone could
have done, Matt. We all did our best."

C: "This type of bullet fragments
and it's hard for any surgeon to get all the pieces."

M: "They should outlaw this
kind of bullet."

C: "Criminals love these
bullets. Does more damage that way."

N: "Makes more work for me."

C: "And more work for me."

Carmen pulls up the left
lung, which has numerous cuts clearly visible to the naked eye.